A week before BMX champion Saya Sakakibara was set to make her hometown of Helensburgh proud at the 2024 Paris Olympics, local artist Sarah Rowan spotted a suggestion on social media.

“There's a local named Dean,” Sarah said. “I have never met him, but he mentioned on Facebook that he would love to see somebody create a mural of Saya and [her brother] Kai and, as an artist and a muralist, I was super excited for the opportunity to capture a local hero and immortalise them in paint and immediately sought out a wall.”

Sarah rang Tony, the owner of the pet food store on the corner of Walker and Short streets in Helensburgh, to ask permission to paint on the beige brick exterior.

“As soon as I sent a mock-up, I immediately got a text back going, Ooh, this is a win-win. Go for it.”

Donations poured in

At publication time, donations had topped $7000 and Sarah was also planning to sell 100 limited-edition prints and give back to the community, with $30 from each sale going towards fixing tracks at Helensburgh’s mountain bike park.

Donations have funded the cost of the mural, which has already become a local landmark and selfie spot for tourists.

Paints and brushes can cost $500 for a job like this, never mind the time and admin costs of running a business, said Sarah. She is particularly grateful for the financial support as it’s been a quiet time in the events industry, where she works as Australia’s first keynote speaker/speed painter.

“Speed painting is literally taking a canvas and painting it super fast in front of a live audience. So sometimes I have three minutes, sometimes 30,” she said.

“I was afraid I was going to have to dip into my life savings in order to cover the costs of my business and life and raising children. When the community just was like, 'we got you’, it just took all the pressure off.”

Inspired by the Sakakibara story

Sarah has never met the Sakakibara siblings, whose journey we have followed since Saya and her older brother Kai were talented teenagers, rising up through the world rankings, to Kai’s terrible race crash in Bathurst in 2020, Saya’s fall at the Tokyo Olympics and ultimately to her triumph in Paris.

“Their story is riveting,” Sarah said. “It is fascinating. Their resilience, [the challenges] they had to overcome, that was relatable in a sense, because I overcame 20 years of conversion therapy and felt like I was on death's door in my own way. I connected to their story – I think everyone can connect because we all go through things. And it might not look the same, but you see someone overcome and come out with gold, you're like, oh, I can get through this tunnel myself, this dark tunnel.”

Sarah first heard of Kai and Saya when she moved from America to Otford in 2016 but then moved away and lost touch with the area, she explained, “while I found my feet after coming out of the closet and leaving a 12-year marriage, and just trying to figure out who the hell I was”.

“I was raised in the Bible Belt in South Carolina. And having an attraction to the same sex was unthinkable. You never talked about it. You never told anybody what you're going through because it was like blasphemy.

“By the time I was 20, I had pastors trying to cast demons out of me. And I went through all these programs where they're trying to change you and fix you because you were seen as something broken. I hated who I was for so long that by the time I was 30 years old, I found myself married with two kids trying to do the right thing … and I woke up one morning and I couldn't walk. I couldn't move my hands, I couldn't move my body. I was so full of inflammation. And I believe inflammation is connected to rejection. The emotion tied to it. And I had rejected myself for so long.”

Sarah has rheumatoid arthritis. She left her marriage, the church and the district, and found that with the huge shift, improved mental health and increased exercise she could manage her disease without medication.

Finding a home in Helensburgh

While it hasn’t been easy, returning to live in a small conservative community (“I was kind of sad when I decorated the miner [statue] for Mardi Gras and it was torn down within hours”), Sarah has found love and support in the historic mining town.

“I'm hoping that just by being full of love, I can help cancel out the darkness in a sense and just show them that, hey, I'm a human too and I don't want to be known as a lesbian. I want to be just known as a loving human that likes to get covered in paint and cover walls and paint murals and homes and brighten people's lives.

“I'm now in the most beautiful relationship with a local who I met in Helensburgh during lockdown. We have seven teenagers between us. I have two, she has five… And she helps me paint. She helped me paint till one in the morning, the night before the news arrived. And we were freezing and loving life.”

Larger than life

Even for a speed painter, the huge Helensburgh mural was a tight turnaround. “I started drawing it on Tuesday then painted it from Wednesday to Friday night. So it was a big fast one.

“It was about 32 human hours between my partner and I, and my daughter did one hour.”

Inspired by a picture she saw in a newspaper, the mural involved “a lot of brick counting” to take it from sketch pad to wall.  “I superimposed the image on the wall through an app, and it's funny because Kai's helmet is off by one brick, and it drives me nuts. I want to go fix it.”

The mural was finished shortly before Saya sped to victory about 5.50am local time on Saturday, August 3, winning Australia's first Olympic gold medal in BMX Racing.

The atmosphere was “electric”, Sarah said. “People came up to me crying. I've never had so many messages and likes and comments on anything in my career.”

Art the great communicator

Sarah discovered her artistic talent by accident. After winning a basketball scholarship to university, she travelled to Brazil to teach the sport to children, who spoke only Portuguese. “I just started drawing stick figures to explain how they had value and purpose in life in a really quirky way. They smiled, they laughed, they cried – this group of 12-year-old girls. And in that moment, my life was forever changed because I realised how art, no matter how simple it was, could communicate through language, age, race, culture, every barrier was broken with a visual engagement.”

In 2003, Sarah completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art. Her talent is on show locally, with about 10 murals in Helensburgh, including at the school, soccer club and netball courts, as well as some in Engadine and at a Corrimal bus stop.

She thinks the area could do with a few more.

“I think we could immortalise a few more local heroes like Darren Coggan and his daughter Olivia, they’re country [music] stars. I would love to create murals over on those big blocks of concrete in the soccer field area. I think every area can be brightened up.”

Creativity is not limited to the arts, she said.

“It’s living a life full of curiosity. I want to bring that to this community because I think it helps with mental health and emotional health. I know everyone's feeling stressed with the times that we are in. But thankfully neuroscientists have said that just by engaging in acts of curiosity and creativity, just a few minutes every day, we can lengthen our lives. That's exciting – like, forget the vegetables and exercise, just get a colouring book and you can lengthen your life 10 years.

“I laughed when I read that because I was like, ‘Man, I am immortal’.”

To enquire about prints, email artistsarahrowan@gmail.com and follow @artistsarahrowan on Instagram